Opera and Politics
Hong Kah Fai
I'm Frederick, a high school student. Because of the enthusiam of my piano
teacher about opera when I asked her what can I subject should I research
about music, I have decided to research on Opera and politics. As you can
see, my thesis statement isn't formed yet. Hence, I really need help on my
research (it's for a school assignment incidentally). Can anyone of you, the
experienced and enlightened opera lover, help me in any way? Thanks a lot!!
Frederick
MNockin
>about music, I have decided to >research on Opera and politics.
Dear Frederick,
The composer, Giuseppe Verdi, who wrote many operas, was very involved in the
politics of his time. I would suggest his music as a subject on which you
would not have any difficulty finding good material.
You lmay already be familiar with some of his music, for example the Triumphal
March from Aida.
I'm wondering where you are and if you have a good library at your disposal. I
would suggest you do some work in the Groves Opera reference to be found in
most big libraries, if you can. However it will not be difficult to find
material on Verdi.
His "Nabucco," for example, contains a prisoners chorus which was often used
to show the displeasure of the Italians who were not living in a unified
country at that time, with the foreign nations which ruled various parts of
what we now call Italy.
Good luck, email me if you need more help.
Maria, the retired teacher from Brooklyn.
Hong Kah Fai
proof-read the message before I sent the message. I apologize for them.
I have thought through things and have done some reading on opera. The
objective of my research is to see how the opera of various composers
reflects the political climate in their country at that time.
May I confirm that Verdi wrote Risorgimento, Nabucco, and Attila which
descibes the process of the unification of Italy?
May I inquire which operas contain political themes and who wrote them?
Thanks a lot.
Hong Kah Fai <kah...@singnet.com.sg> wrote in message
news:7qis8q$gn4$1...@violet.singnet.com.sg...
Tom Silverwood
As Maria points out, Verdi was really involved in the risorgimento
politics of his time. Many of his operas at least symbolically utilize that
theme: Nabucco, I Lombardi, I Vespri Siciliani and others have stirring
music referring to Italian independence. Look at Julian Budden's almost
definitive biography of Verdi for background and detailed analyses of the
operas. It comes in three volumes, but it's worth it if you are serious.
Adams' "Nixon in China" might work, but if you are new to opera, you
might want something whose music is more traditional, but maybe not.
Mussorgsky's "Boris Godonov" is obviously political as is his
"Khovasnschina."
You could do something with Verdi and Shakespeare's "Macbeth." Perhaps
something like Macbeth as Machiavellian Prince: Did Verdi the risorgimento
patriot approve of him? (Ask questions like that; the answer might make
an interesting thesis statement.)
An interesting study might occur with Sardou's play and Puccini's opera
"Tosca." You might study the Napoleonic period and come up with some kind
of abuse of the politics of power.
Good luck.
Tom Silverwood (retired HS
teacher from Deerfield, IL)
MNockin wrote in message <19990901102814...@ng-ch1.aol.com>...
>YOu wrote
>>about music, I have decided to >research on Opera and politics.
>
andre35
Just remember, many liberties were taken with history in the libretto, so don't view everything as fact. Enjoy yourself, it is an exciting opera if you choose to view it as a story, not a history text.
Best regards and good luck
andre35.................retired salesman
Neil Fisher
<kah...@singnet.com.sg> writes
>Hallo everyone in this discussion list
>
>I'm Frederick, a high school student. Because of the enthusiam of my piano
>teacher about opera when I asked her what can I subject should I research
>about music, I have decided to research on Opera and politics. As you can
>see, my thesis statement isn't formed yet. Hence, I really need help on my
>research (it's for a school assignment incidentally). Can anyone of you, the
>experienced and enlightened opera lover, help me in any way? Thanks a lot!!
>
>Frederick
>
Try and buy 'Viva la liberta: Politics in opera' by Antony Arblaster. I
makes interesting reading even if it is sounds rather contrived at
times. It includes an angle no-one has yet mentioned - feminism, using
for examples Traviata, Carmen and Katya Kabanova.
--
Neil
andre35
A.
Matthew B. Tepper
what I'm pondering as follows...
>
>Viva la liberta........Chenier?
>A.
No; _Don Giovanni_!
--
Matthew B. Tepper: WWW, science fiction, classical music, ducks!
My personal home page -- http://www.deltanet.com/~ducky/index.htm
My main music page --- http://www.deltanet.com/~ducky/berlioz.htm
To write to me, do for my address what Androcles did for the lion
"Compassionate Conservatism?" * "Tight Slacks?" * "Jumbo Shrimp?"
andre35
the paper done from libretti or other's research, the historian's specialty.
Comparing one opera to another might prove interesting, and no less valid than
using existing texts. Gerard's opening aria explains one hell of a lot, so can the
London Times, if researched correctly.
Traviata, using the libretto along with any number of "Social History" texts,
(after my time) can show women's position in the context of the times.
The texts are of course, useful. But, remember a music teacher posed this
assignment.
When I was in school the Cuneiform tablets were tough to take home from the
library, so songs were part of history, and often more accurate.
no pasaran
andre35............MA History.....UM....1960
Hans Christian Hoff wrote:
> Politics in this sense is politics of the past ; of opera in contemporary politics
> you will probably find nothing !
>
> You will find a lot in Michael Raeburn: The Chronicle of Opera (London 1998, ISBN
> 0-500-01867-7) and in Jellinek: History through the Opera Glass (ISBN
> 0-912483-90-3).
>
> Regards
>
> Hans
robert seigler
thesis statement isn't formed yet. Hence, I really need help on my
research (it's for a school assignment incidentally). Can anyone of you,
the experienced and enlightened opera lover, help me in any way? Thanks
a lot!!"
Frederick
reply:
it might help to know if there is any time in history which you find
particularly interesting, then look among the operas to see which one's
of that era seem to capture the 'spirit of the time.' seen this way,
even seemingly non-political works may reflect the whole cultural
ambiance.
in high school, i was fascinated by the politics of weimar germany,
which spanned the end of the first world war and the rise of hitler. it
was a time of huge social changes, and many interesting operas were
written then. alban berg's WOZZECK not only challenged concepts of music
and drama, but presented a tragedy of a nobody - an average man who
might have been a veteran of the war, even if the opera was actually set
in an earlier time frame.
for me, however, the single opera which best encapsulates the decadence
of the period was kurt weill's RISE AND FALL OF THE CITY OF MAHAGONNY.
it illustrates the modern, urban landscape of europe suddenly expected
to conform to an american ideal of democratic capitalism. weill was
forced out of germany by the nazis, and came to america, where he then
wrote in the style of our musicals, often too carrying heavy poltical
import. his last theatre piece, LOST IN THE STARS, deals with racism in
south africa.
bob
"Denn wie man sich bettet, so liegt man.
Es deckt einen da keiner zu."
Brecht
Dolores Palomo
certainly be looked at with respect to its political implications in a
particular time frame. This would be a very specific topic to research,
and one that's hardly subtle or oblique although it is by no means
obvious.
Dolores in Seattle
Hans Christian Hoff
> Viva la liberta........Chenier?
> A.
>
> Neil Fisher wrote:
>
> > In article <7qis8q$gn4$1...@violet.singnet.com.sg>, Hong Kah Fai
> > <kah...@singnet.com.sg> writes
> > >Hallo everyone in this discussion list
> > >
> > >I'm Frederick, a high school student. Because of the enthusiam of my piano
> > >teacher about opera when I asked her what can I subject should I research
> > >about music, I have decided to research on Opera and politics. As you can
> > >see, my thesis statement isn't formed yet. Hence, I really need help on my
> > >research (it's for a school assignment incidentally). Can anyone of you, the
> > >experienced and enlightened opera lover, help me in any way? Thanks a lot!!
> > >
> > >Frederick
> > >
> >
John Carter
>
> I'm Frederick, a high school student. Because of the enthusiam of my piano
> teacher about opera when I asked her what can I subject should I research
> about music, I have decided to research on Opera and politics. As you can
> see, my thesis statement isn't formed yet. Hence, I really need help on my
> research (it's for a school assignment incidentally). Can anyone of you,
the
> experienced and enlightened opera lover, help me in any way? Thanks a
lot!!
>
> Frederick
>
an actual satire on the Czarist politics of its day and Russia's defeat in I
think the war with Japan. Rimsky was dismissed from his post as a result but
was reinstated after student protests.Sounds very up to date.
Many early 19th century Germans were also involved with the subject of
unification.Spohr for example would not perform in any German state that did
not support it..I do not know if it crops up in any of his operas as I do
not know them well enough but it might be possible.Any Spohr buff reading?
Certain operas have been banned at times because of political
content.Certainly in Russia. For example the title of Prince Igor was
changed.
Offenbachs satires on the last French Empire period was certainly one
element that led to its downfall.
Certain Polish operas were banned during the period of Russian Czarist rule
because of national sentiments. I think also something like this happened in
Finland about the time of Sibelius or just before.
In many countries under foreign rule the inclusion of popular songs with
strong nationalist sentiments in operas have led to their being banned or
serving as a national rallying cry.Hungary under Austrian rule for
example,i.e, The Hungarian March in Berliozs Damnation of Faust.
Also the complex problems of Flemish and Walloon politics are reflected in
certain operas.
It looks as if you have found a fertile area to research. Good luck, it
should be interesting.
John Carter Barsoom.
Capa081348
>From: "Hong Kah Fai" kah...@singnet.com.sg
>Date: Wed, 01 September 1999 05:45 AM EDT
>Message-id: <7qis8q$gn4$1...@violet.singnet.com.sg>
>
>Hallo everyone in this discussion list
>
>I'm Frederick, a high school student. Because of the enthusiam of my piano
>teacher about opera when I asked her what can I subject should I research
>about music, I have decided to research on Opera and politics. As you can
>see, my thesis statement isn't formed yet. Hence, I really need help on my
>research (it's for a school assignment incidentally). Can anyone of you, the
>experienced and enlightened opera lover, help me in any way? Thanks a lot!!
>
>Frederick
Another possible angle of attack on this general subject involves the
consideration that the greatest periods of excellence in most art forms
(literature, painting, sculpture, architecture) correspond quite well with the
political supremacy of the country producing the artists.
From Athens to Rome to the Italian Renaissance to Elizabethan England to the
Spain of the 16th Century, the Dutch in the 17th Century, the France of Louis
XIV, the great post-Napoleonic era of British poetry and letters, and the
twentieth century American Nobel Prize winning novelists, we see that most
cultural efflorescences have coincided with periods of political power.
But opera (and to a lesser extent Western music in general) does not seem to
follow the political power curve so closely.
Why not?
Pat Finley
Der Reine Tor
GRNDPADAVE
>Date: Wed, 01 September 1999 04:58 PM EDT
>Message-id: <37CD9370...@bellsouth.net>
>
>Viva la liberta........Chenier?
>A.
>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
No, sir, that's from DON GIOVANNI (finale to Act I).
CHENIER contains one of the silliest lines ever: "Viva la morte insiem" (Illica
could have never gotten that one by Giaciosa -- or Puccini for that matter).
==G/P Dave
andre35
That particular phrase is also to be found sung by "gli voce dalla strada"
early on in Act Three of 'Chenier," unless I am mistaken shortly after Madelon
volunteers her grandson. She violated the first principle of military
survival...........never volunteer.
Pace
Andre
Neil Fisher
Elizabethan England did not have political supremacy. Already in the
reign of Mary I England had lost their last overseas colony - Calais.
The defeat of the armada cannot be interpreted as an indication that
England was more powerful than Spain. The existence of such a massive
armada in the first place shows in fact the opposite.
--
Neil
Tony Vella
themes im operas ????
--
Tony Vella
Ottawa, Canada
tony....@sympatico.ca
ICQ #27014379
Hong Kah Fai <kah...@singnet.com.sg> wrote in message
news:7qis8q$gn4$1...@violet.singnet.com.sg...
Steffan O'Sullivan
>
>I'm Frederick, a high school student. Because of the enthusiam of my piano
>teacher about opera when I asked her what can I subject should I research
>about music, I have decided to research on Opera and politics.
The La Scala Opera House in Milano is a prime subject for research.
After the Napoleonic wars but before Italian unification, Austria ruled
the part of Italy which contains Milano. The Austrians were very ...
paranoid rulers, to say the least. For example, when Rossini's
_William Tell_ was to be performed there, the Austrian government
wouldn't allow it. Not really surprising - it's the story of the Swiss
revolt against Austrian tyranny! So they changed it to William Wallace
(of Braveheart fame) and they let it play. Apparently the Austrians
had no problem with Scottish revolt against English tyranny.
One of the reasons La Scala became such a fashionable place to spend
the evening is because the government was suspicious of people throwing
parties behind closed doors. They assumed conspiracy. So La Scala
became the place to have your guests - everyone in town could see you
in public, so there was little chance of a conspiracy meeting going
on.
There's a well-researched historical fiction mystery novel which
includes such a conspiracy, set in the 1820s in the Milano area. The
book is called _The Devil in Music_ by the late Kate Ross. A fun read
which should whet your appetite for more scholarly research.
--
Steffan O'Sullivan gr...@groo.com Moving from NC to NH!
----------------------- http://www.io.com/~sos -----------------------
I'm in the process of moving, folks, so may be slow to answer e-mail.
Details at http://www.io.com/~sos/moving.html
andre35
We're about to step into the arena of socio-cultural history here, certainly
not my forte, I'm a "political-man seizes the moment person." However, ( there's
always a however ) your description and time context goes a long way towards an
explanation.
As you wrote, and as was certainly the case, which were the two most
fragmented yet-to-be-nation states in europe? Right again, Germany and Italy? ( its
easier to use that particular nomenclature) Without the risorgiamento and Otto von
B's eventual unification of Prussia with the principalities of Germany,
industrialization had not yet taken hold as it did in england. France was always
france, give or take a province or two, Spain the potential bankrupt, and austria
fighting a holding action, as it were.
For some reason which I haven't the talent to fully explain, the turbulence
brewing in the italian and german societies blossomed out, or began to, as an
outlet for whatever pent up wants, needs, and emotions those societies felt, into
art.( all generalities are untrue, including this one.) I must disagree with you
about the need for a stable society as the mainstay for art.
Or, for that matter, religion. I wish I had my old texts, in order to ,so to speak,
footnote my thesis here. I believe that change and political turbulence lead to
changes in almost every aspect of society, even the arts. Music, being for the most
part uncensorable and rousing at the same time, would, of course, profit from this
climate. See: Rouget de Lisle.
Its been many years since I've thrown such glittering generalities about,
above all without the reference works which would enable me to name names and
dates.
What started me thinking was the world wide "revolutionary" year 1848, the
ramifications of which lasted and lasted, until that social revolution finally
burned itself out in european streets in 1968. But, as I said, I'm more political
than socio-cultural.
Thanks for the forum
best
Andy
Capa081348 wrote:
> . >Subject: off-topic history war!
> >From: Neil Fisher ne...@fisher-family.demon.co.uk
>
> >>From Athens to Rome to the Italian Renaissance to Elizabethan England
> >
> Neil: Elizabethan England did not have political supremacy. Already in the
> reign of Mary I England had lost their last overseas colony - Calais. The
> defeat of the armada cannot be interpreted as an indication that
> England was more powerful than Spain. The existence of such a massive armada in
> the first place shows in fact the opposite.
> >
> >--
> >Neil
> --------------------------------
>
> Hello, Neil from the UK
>
> I didn't think I would be debating this point with someone from the UK. :-)
>
> Back in June, I was writing about unsung (on-topic!) monarchs, I think, when I
> wrote the following:
>
> >
> >Capa081348 wrote
>
> >>But in many ways he {Henry VII} was the first modern King of England.
> Prudent, careful, thrifty, he set the country on its way toward the economic
> prosperity it was to have in the sixteenth century, by the end of which, this
> little island was probably the most prosperous, best educated, and strongest
> country in Europe.
> -----------------------------
> John Yohalem responded:
> >At the end of the century, though France was breathing again after thirty
> years of civil wars and Spain had had a knock or two, England certainly could
> not compare with either of them for wealth or military strength. Education
> could be challenged, too -- the universities of Paris and Salamanca had the
> same authority that Oxford and Cambridge had, and rather more international
> prestige.
>
> >England did not become a European "power" until Cromwell's time, and the "most
> prosperous" etc. until the 18th century.
>
> >Jean Coeur de Lapin
> ------------------------------------------------
>
> And I countered:
>
> Spain had "had a knock or two", John? The defeat of the Armada in 1588 (with a
> great deal of help from the "Protestant Wind" which did as much damage as the
> British fleet) is one of the turning points in European History. This was the
> first great triumph of British sea power, which was to have tremendous impact
> on the military, political, cultural, and commercial future of the world for
> the next three and a half centuries.
>
> The defeat of the Armada also helped clinch Holland's eventual liberation from
> the Spanish Hapsburgs and preserved the Protestant Reformation in two of the
> great commercial powers of the seventeenth century, Britain and Holland.
>
> At Philip II's death, in 1598, he still could argue that the retained some
> claim over all of the vast holdings that he had inherited, but his life had
> been a failure. His kingdom, while still, certainly, a great power, had been
> drained of men and gold to fight for goals which were in ashes -- Hapsburg
> hegemony, the eradication of Protestantism, and dominance in the New World.
>
> Philip's reign had seen the reduction of the Cortes to virtual impotence, while
> in Britain, the House of Commons grew greatly both in numbers and importance in
> the latter half of the sixteenth century -- as James I and Charles I were soon
> to find out.
>
> In the same years that the British were forming the East India Company, the
> Dutch East India Company, the Hamburg Company, the Russia Company, the Levant
> Company and other joint-stock enterprises that were to revolutionize the
> mercantile era, the Spanish badly mishandled the vast riches that flowed east
> from Mexico and Peru, not to mention the sugar, indigo, tobacco, and cocoa from
> the Caribbean regions. Rather than having to raise money to finance wars
> through parliamentary approval, as was the practice evolving in Britain, Philip
> and his heirs were able to squander incredible wealth, (and mortgage future
> proceeds from the Americas) to the bankers, brokers, and merchants of Europe,
> without much in the way of checks and balances. While Spain forbade industrial
> production in their colonies (in hopes of supplying them with manufactured
> goods from the homeland), it did little to use the incoming wealth to develop
> home industry, which by Philip's death was on the decline.
>
> The Spanish persecution of the Jews, Moriscos, and Protestants, during the
> preceding century also did untold harm to the Spanish economy.
>
>
> James VI of Scotland's ascendance to the British crown went a long way toward
> ending the centuries-long struggle between the two peoples who shared most of
> the largest of the British Isles; Wales had been incorporated into England in
> 1535. In Spain, Philip II tried to integrate the Catalans and the Basques more
> closely into a united Iberian peninsula (he did annex Portugal, which was lost
> again in the 1660's); needless to say, that has still not been accomplished
> >
> -------------------------
>
> Back to the present --
>
> Perhaps I should have said Elizabethan-Jacobean England -- many of the great
> playwrights of that era
> ( Jonson, Massinger, Webster, Beaumont and Fletcher, et al) are really
> Jacobean, and Shakespeare straddles the two reigns.
>
> And political "supremacy" may not have the most apt phrase either -- did the
> Americans have supremacy over the Soviets between 1946 and 1990?
>
> But I think the point I was trying to make is generally true -- it takes a
> certain amount of political/military security and a significant degree of
> affluence, for most artists to have the time and the economic wherewithal to
> pursue their art.
>
> But this seems to me to be less true for music, than the other art-forms, and
> especially less true for opera. Italy and Germany were turbulent and none too
> prosperous societies in the years 1800-1865 (pre Bismarck, say). And yet a
> significant percentage of the world's great operas were written in those two
> "nations" during those years.
>
> Why should this be so?
>
> Best Regards,
Capa081348
Mark D. Lew
<kah...@singnet.com.sg> wrote:
> May I confirm that Verdi wrote Risorgimento, Nabucco, and Attila which
> descibes the process of the unification of Italy?
"Risorgimento" is not the name of an opera. It is a general term applied to
the political movement leading to the unification of Italy in the middle of
the 19th century. (The word means, approximately, "rising again".)
Nabucco and Attila both have nationalist themes (Nabucco especially), and
each has one number in particular which became popular as a sort of
nationalist anthem, but neither of them describes the unification of Italy.
As I've said here in the past, I think Verdi's political role is frequently
overstated, though that isn't to say it was not significant. Verdi was a
devoted nationalist and felt strongly about unification and Italy
generally, but historically his role was as a symbolic leader, not an
active participant. Unlike, say, D'Annunzio, he did not try to combine his
artistic career with a political career. Even his writings were, although
frequently inspirational, rarely explicit in their political message.
Verdi's activism was on the small scale -- local philanthropy, sponsorship,
etc -- rather than the large scale of revolution or national politics. His
brief stint in the legislature was at the personal request of Cavour. He
followed Cavour entirely in his voting and took no political initiative of
his own. For many decades after unification Verdi was revered, but more in
the way of a monarch than a prime minister.
If we're looking for an opera composer who made a whole-hearted attempt at
a political career, I suggest Paderewski.
mdl
Capa081348
>From: andre35 and...@bellsouth.net
>Date: Thu, 02 September 1999 11:13 PM EDT
snip/snip
For some reason which I haven't the talent to fully explain, the turbulence
brewing in the italian and german societies blossomed out, or began to, as an
outlet for whatever pent up wants, needs, and emotions those societies felt,
into art.( all generalities are untrue, including this one.) I must disagree
with
you about the need for a stable society as the mainstay for art.
(interesting points about 1848 snipped)
Thanks for the forum
>best
>Andy
-------------------------------------------
Pat: I would strongly suggest that a stable, prosperous society is important
for artistic development in general (over several thousand years of history,
there are bound to be numerous exceptions, of course.)
Just a couple of examples
-- The Middle Ages -- from the time of
Alaric (400's) to the time of Giotto, Dante and Petrarch (late 13th, early 14th
centuries, a span of more than 800 years there are only a handful of familiar
works of literature from the whole of Western Europe. Almost no painting and
no sculpture survives from these lost centuries
with the exception of some works that can be found in the Gothic cathedrals
most of which are dated from 1200 onward.
Just about the sole oasis to this European artistic wasteland (Arab culture
aside) was the monasteries where many "little arts" -- (illuminated manuscripts
for example) developed in these islands of relative stability and prosperity.
Another example, closer to our own times -- the United States 1607- 1830 or so.
The American colonists and their descendants were probably, on the whole,
better educated than the average European they left behind. But they were very
busy carving a life out of the wilderness, subjugating the indigenous
population, eventually fighting a revolution, and building a republic to have
much time for cultural pursuits. It was not until things had settled down, and
the country was relatively prosperous, in the 1830's and 40's, that we find
the age of Hawthorne, Melville, Poe, Longfellow (a group who I would rate a cut
above the Irvings and Coopers of the prior generation).
There were great religious writers, and brilliant political writers during the
formative years of our country, but very little fiction, poetry, painting,
music or sculpture of historical importance.
Tmoms
Thanks a lot.>>
Opera as a "form" was very political in the context of the Renaissance, which
led to the Enlightenment, which led to democracy, e.g. America, then France.
The Holy Roman Empire prohibited "official" art on any subject other than
religion, if you recall...which is one reason Caravagio's sexy little angels
were so controversial.
Opera based itself on the ancient Greek plays, which were about the individual,
and that was in and of itself rebellious.
Hard to realize now, but this was the most revolutionary time in history, IMHO.
One of the "founders" of opera was the father of Gallileo.
More than that, an opera like Lucia di Lammermoor was as provocative at least
as "I am Woman, Hear me Roar" at the time it was written, remembering that
politically neither the Italians nor the Japanese (nor the Germans, really) had
managed to establish democracies before WWII. Real politics, not that fake
left wing junk, is "a neighborhood issue". Like most women, Lucia had to marry
for her family's purposes, not for love.
Tmoms